New England Water Supplies – A Brief History
M. Kempe
Chapter 5 – Disasters, War and Emergency Planning
As hard as we all work on building and operating good water supplies, as good as our skills and
experience make us, we can only control the situation so much until something bigger than we
can handle comes along. These times help define our history.
There are four types of extraordinary events that are discussed fairly frequently in the history of
the NEWWA Journal: public health incidents, water supply failures, natural disasters and social
disasters such as wars.
Public Health Incidents
The early years of the Journal record a significant number of waterborne disease investigations
that found some source of typhoid contribution from within the source watershed. The absence
of effective treatment in the early days was the real culprit and once disinfection was widely
practiced, the incidence of waterborne disease dropped off to near nothing. There was still an
occasional problem, one notable one being the 1959 Keene NH outbreak which had hundreds of
cases of gastroenteritis but, most notably, 14 cases of typhoid, one of which was fatal. This was
traced back to an infected person at a logging camp in the watershed and was made possible by
the absence of residual disinfection, something that was immediately rectified after the incident.
The supply was actually filtered but the event came during heavy rains while a filter was being
cleaned. Other relatively minor incidents included a 1978 Campylobacter outbreak in Vermont
with 3,000 cases, a 1976 Giardia outbreak in Berlin NH with 750 cases, a 1985 Giardia outbreak
in Pittsfield MA with 700 cases and a 2002 Norovirus outbreak in Connecticut with 142 cases.
New England has been relatively well off compared to other regions of the country.
The focus on public health incidents in
the past several decades has been more
on breakdowns of the protection barriers.
With the advent of effective treatment,
complacency can be a problem where
there are high risk sources, examples
being the Milwaukee WI and Walkerton
Ontario sources that often had runoff
from cattle grazing. The lessons here
were learned elsewhere but were
significant for the entire industry. In
both the 1993 Milwaukee
cryptosporidium incident and the 2000
1959 Keene typhoid incident, note logging camp
Walkerton E coli incident, the real issue
near pond
was failure of the treatment process. The
Milwaukee incident is believed to be the result of improper filtration backwashing combined
with the intake being susceptible to high cryptosporidium loadings during storm events. It is
clearly the largest waterborne disease incident in modern times with over a hundred deaths and
400,000 cases of illness. It is also an example of how effective a biological agent can be and
why we need to be vigilant in securing water systems. In a historical footnote, this was not a
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first large waterborne health incident for Milwaukee. In 1916, there was an incident involving a
night-time operator that did an unauthorized shutdown of their chlorination after receiving a
complaint of chlorine taste, leading to 60,000 cases of gastroenteritis, 400-500 cases of typhoid
and 40-50 deaths. This speaks volumes for selection of a well protected source to minimize
reliance on the treatment barriers always being 100% effective.
The Walkerton incident that caused seven deaths and
up to 2,000 illnesses was an example of operator
inattention and, worse, operator dishonesty. The loss
of chlorination that caused the incident to occur was
unreported and water quality tests were falsified to
hide the lapse. Fortunately this is rare within the
industry and serves as a reminder of the importance
of our actions in protecting the public.
3 Unreal Biological Infestations
Fiction is stranger than truth when it
comes to some reservoir stories:
1. “Champie” is the name for the sea
serpent that roams Lake Champlain,
Burlington VT’s water supply.
Sightings are attested to by many
residents.
The occurrence of other health disasters is worth
2. Stephen King wrote his book
noting. The 1918 pandemic, commonly called the
“Dreamcatcher” after visiting
“Spanish Flu”, was an example of a viral epidemic
Quabbin Reservoir. The Intake is
with enormous impact. It hit New England hard,
featured in the climactic final scene
starting in Boston’s military hospital that was treating
where an intelligent space fungus
cases of the flu in returning World War I soldiers and
tries to infect Boston’s water supply.
then expanding out to the general public through
Stephen King also featured Bangor’s
person to person transmission. In a matter of months,
1875 Water Works and Thomas Hill
this flu passed through the entire country causing
Standpipe in other stories.
infected persons to be severely ill at best and causing
3. Providence’s Scituate Reservoir,
death in a relatively high percentage of cases. The
when it was being constructed in the
epidemic was so virulent and the strain of flu so
1920’s, was the inspiration for H. P.
deadly that otherwise healthy people died very
Lovecraft’s short story “The Colour
rapidly. Since the only possible response was to limit
Out of Space”. Lovecraft tells of a
contact to avoid infection, this pretty much cleared
strange growth that arrived on a
the streets and affected society at all levels. The
meteorite, possessing people in the
lesson from this for water suppliers is important and
final days before the area was
the current Avian Flu and SARS scares make this a
inundated by reservoir filling.
timely issue. Water suppliers will need to be
prepared to operate through pandemic conditions
No word on regulation of alien growths
someday where a significant percentage of staff is
or sea serpents in SDWA amendments.
unavailable and other businesses that provide critical
services like chemicals, materials or services may be equally unable to fulfill needs.
Water supply disasters – Things just break sometimes
Many water supply problems came early in the development of water supply technologies and
were the result of a sometimes painful learning curve. For example, soils engineering really
didn’t come of age until the early 1900’s, which meant engineering specialties like dam design in
the 1800’s were done more through lore handed down from mentor engineer to student engineer
rather than through sound understanding of principles. Hydrology and hydraulics were still
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young fields in the 1800’s and the absence of reliable records of floods and drought meant there
was an inadequate understanding of nature’s extremes.
Catastrophic failure of water facilities occasionally caused problems beyond the interruption of
the water supply. Collapse of water containing facilities was a significant hazard to the downhill
areas.
Dam failures
Most early colonial dams had been built privately for mills and failure was not unknown. The first major
dam failure in the US was in 1874 in Williamsburg MA, killing 144 people and causing $1 million in
damages. Many early timber dams, such as the original Holyoke Dam on the Connecticut River had
failed but with lesser consequences. As late as 1889, the Johnstown, PA dam failed, taking 2,200 lives,
still the largest US loss of life due to a dam failure. The Johnstown failure in particular, was clearly the
result of inadequate understanding of proper maintenance and flood management by the non-technical
owners.
In the water supply world, there had been an 1842 failure of New York’s Croton dam during
construction. Within New England, there had been several failures of water supply dams
including the 1848 failure of Boston’s original Lake Cochituate stone dam during filling, the
1867 failure of Hartford’s Dam No. 1 on Trout Brook during a flood event while under
construction and the 1876 failure of Worcester’s original Lynde Brook dam. The Worcester
event was clearly the most destructive. Failure was preceded by substantial leakage from the old
earthen structure and gradual undermining of the dam. The flood swept away the gatehouses,
leaving a hole 150’ wide by 20’ deep and causing a water level drop of 16’ in an hour and a half.
Owing to the warning, no lives were lost but downstream mills, houses and railroad
embankments were washed away causing $750,000 in damages. Worcester rebuilt the dam and
continues to use this source to this day. In each of these older incidents, the underlying cause
was a lack of engineering knowledge, be it an underlying soils issue as in Lake Cochituate or
Lynde Brook or inadequate flooding protection as on Trout Brook.
As with all dams, water suppliers have been subject to monitoring requirements regarding
physical condition of the dam and follow-up remediation steps to assure safety. During the 1936
and 1955 hurricanes, non-water supply dam collapses in New England caused extensive damage
to downstream communities. Nationally, following some particularly catastrophic dam failures
in the 1970’s, federal regulation came in the form of the 1972 National Dam Inspection Act
which directed states to assume primary responsibility for dam condition and directed the Corps
of Engineers to inspect all high hazard dams. This continues to be a timely issue with 2 national
examples of privately owned dam failures (Hawaii and Missouri) with resulting fatalities in
2006.
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Examples of distribution storage
failures
• Portland ME distribution reservoir
– In 1882, one of the city’s open
reservoirs breached and in 30
minutes discharged 6 million
gallons into the streets of the city,
causing some damage but injuring
no one.
• Fairhaven MA tank – In 1901, the
city’s new steel elevated tank
collapsed one night in high wind.
As with many other early tanks, the
wind stresses were not adequately
addressed.
• Other early uncovered tanks, such
as an early steel tank in Bath ME,
had such little reinforcing in the top
ring that they were buckled by wind
forces.
1901 Fairhaven MA
Tank
M. Kempe
1882 Portland ME Distribution Reservoir breach
1901 Fairhaven MA Tank after the failure
1921 Bath ME
Failure of open top
tank
•
Saugus MA Tank – On September 22, 1987, a 40 year old steel elevated tank in Saugus MA
ruptured. The escaping water crushed several cars and damaged an adjacent cable television
building but, fortunately, did not cause any deaths or extensive property damage.
•
New London CT Tanks – In 1943, New London had constructed three new 1.2 MG
prestressed reinforced concrete tanks in a cluster. In 1960, there was a catastrophic breach
and flooding from 2 of the three tanks. The cause was later determined to be soil settlement
and failure of the piping in the space between the tanks and subsequent undermining and
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collapse of 2 of the tank floors. The event caused no loss of life and minimal damage but
resulted in a review of all similar reinforced concrete tanks.
New London CT prestressed concrete tanks, failure
occurred at pipe manifold in center
Water Supply Irony – Part 1
Water tanks help provide fire protection, right?
How about a water tank that burns down? This
happened in Boston during the early 1900’s to
an early iron plate tank in the Orient Heights
neighborhood of East Boston. The tank had a
wood framed and shingled enclosure with an
internal stairway to a public viewing platform.
It caught fire and burned to the ground, causing
significant damage to the iron tank. Other
historic wooden enclosed tanks such as those in
Bangor ME and Scituate, MA now have
internal sprinkler systems.
1988 Holden MA dome failure
Water Supply Irony – Part 2
How about when the Water
Department offices burn down? This
happened in 1925 to Fairhaven MA.
In a 1940 paper, they declared
themselves as being the most hard
luck Water Department in NEWWA,
having had 4 recent major disasters the others being the 1938 hurricane, a
1901 elevated tank collapse and a
1933 lightning strike that collapsed
their pump station chimney.
East Boston Tank
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Breaks
Every water system
superintendent has been
woken up in the night to
control flooding from some
ruptured pipe, often with
resulting flooding of homes
or sensitive facilities. Every
community could tell stories
about “the big break” in their
system but only one can
claim the largest pipe break
in New England. That
dubious honor apparently
goes to Providence, RI
which had a rupture in its
102” prestressed concrete
1916 Pumping out a basement after a 48” pipe break in Boston
aqueduct in a Cranston
MA
neighborhood on
11/17/1996. A rather large chunk of wall blew out in a section that had experienced reinforcing
wire failure from corrosion. An 80 acre area of Cranston was flooded and the pressure loss
affected 600,000 customers. Fortunately, there was a backup pipe, smaller but large enough to
provide supply during the 2 month repair.
Power failures
While most water systems have taken care to develop backup power for critical facilities, recent
national experience is worth noting. The 2003 power failure that affected most of the
northeastern and mid-western states demonstrated that not everyone was ready. Both Cleveland
and Detroit suffered service outages when their large source water pumping systems couldn’t
operate. Only the far western parts of New England were directly affected and there were no
significant water supply problems. The great Northeast blackout of 1965 had similarly affected
the entire New England area but the outage was much briefer, so any water systems that couldn’t
pump probably were able to continue service on storage. These incidents are ample
reinforcement to consider maintaining strong backup power readiness.
Natural disasters
In the 125 year history of the organization, there have been many significant natural destructive
events, such as floods, hurricanes, blizzards and earthquakes. Some examples of these events are
described below.
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1936 flood in Hartford CT
Spring Floods
The most notable floods in New England were the following:
• 1927 Vermont flood (84 dead, $28M damages) – This flood caused extensive flooding of riverfront
villages and washing out of mains on bridges and streets near the rivers.
• 1936 Storm and rapid snowmelt (24 dead, $113M damages, Merrimack River valley cities very hard
hit, 77,000 homeless, Hooksett NH 18-20’ under water). Noted among the stories after this incident
was the flooding of the Lawrence Experiment Station up to the lab benches. The Lawrence
engineering staff also disconnected and pulled their electric motors up to the second floor to avoid
flood damage.
In both these cases, water supply facilities along the rivers were flooded and significantly
damaged causing extended loss of service in many communities.
Hurricanes and High Wind Events
In general, hurricane damage to water supplies is due to several factors. In addition to the
expected damages due to high winds and falling tree limbs, power failures affect everyone.
Coastal storm surges cause salt water fouling of coastal groundwater and low lying water
reservoirs. River flooding can cause washouts of roads and bridges and, with them, the pipes.
Any water facilities, like intakes or pump stations, in the coastal storm surge areas or river flood
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plains can experience extensive flooding damage. The most significant storms included the
following:
1954 Hurricane – Bristol RI staff
closing a valve during the storm
•
•
•
•
1954 Tidal surge ocean water pouring into Kickemuit Res.,
Bristol RI
Unnamed Category 3 1938 hurricane (700 killed, 400M damages) – This storm caused
extensive wind damage to facilities and knocked down most of the trees in central New
England. In addition to the building damages, this storm had significant lasting effects on
water quality and watershed runoff of many surface sources. A follow-up review in
Massachusetts noted that 24 communities had lost mains and 14 had sources flooded out. 10
additional communities lost power and 2 had standpipes damaged, including East Brookfield
which had their standpipe overturned completely.
Carol 1954 (66 dead, $500M damages) - This storm produced a devastating storm surge in
Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Buzzard Bay area of Massachusetts, destroying 5,000
buildings. Coastal supplies were especially hard hit with water quality problems from
salinity and wind blown debris.
Diane 1955 (90 dead, 1500 homes damaged) - This storm dumped up to 20” of rain and
caused the Blackstone River to go 17’ over flood stage at Woonsocket RI. Roads and
bridges were washed out with loss of water supply pipes.
Donna 1960 (50 deaths, $387M in damages) - This storm crossed Long Island and hit
Connecticut with extensive storm surge damage along the coast and up to 130 mph winds in
Rhode Island.
Blizzards
The Great blizzard of 1978, a storm with 24” to 38” of snow, followed an earlier 20” snowfall
causing near complete paralysis of most of southern New England. This was an interesting
challenge for most operators with many staff having to bunk in at their facilities for lack of relief
shift operators.
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Earthquakes
New England has the potential for substantial earthquake events but they are much less frequent
than those of the west coast, where the need to harden piping across fault areas and to have
substantial response resources in place has been deemed necessary. Northern New England is
much closer to the more active Quebec earthquake area but southern New England has more
vulnerable construction in its older communities. Either way, the risk of damage from a repeat
of some of the earlier recorded earthquakes is substantial and lessons could be learned from west
coast experience. The following are some of the region’s bigger events:
• 1638 in NH - Estimated at 6.5-7 magnitude, damage was limited due to very simple
construction in early colonial days.
• 1755 in Cape Ann, MA - Estimated at 6.0 magnitude, many buildings fell as far away as
Boston.
• 1940 in Tamworth NH –Estimated at 5.5, apparently caused a Chicopee MA pipe failure.
Social Conflicts and War
Nature’s fury is at least fairly short-lived. War can go on for years and the after effects last
longer. Several such major events dominated the history of water supply and were documented
by many NEWWA Journal papers.
Earlier wars
Prior to World War I, wars didn’t have too much direct impact on New England water supplies
mainly because they were elsewhere. It is notable that medical men were as unfamiliar with
germ theory as the water suppliers at the time. The result was that these wars were extremely
deadly to the participants from the lack of proper sanitation, with more men dying from typhoid
in remote war zones than from flying bullets.
World War I
New England men went to
fight this war with at least
some understanding of
sanitation but were faced
with new threats such as
chemical warfare. Even
the water supplier’s new
friend, chlorine gas, was
used a chemical weapon
on the battlefield.
One subject discussed at
World War I water wagon
some length in the
NEWWA Journal was the water supply issues associated with the Allied Expeditionary Force
(AEF). Bacteria testing and water treatment via disinfection were now practiced in the field. A
noteworthy paper in 1919 by Col. Francis Longley, a member of NEWWA who had served in
the AEF, documents the experiences of his 26th Engineers, a U.S. Army Regiment whose special
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purpose was the water supply for the Allied Forces in their zone. They supplied safe water to not
only the men but also the horses being used by the troops. They performed water quality testing
and treatment in a live war where chemical weapons were used in combat for the first time and
sanitary conditions were horrendous. As was common in wars of this period, more casualties in
this unit were from disease (21) than from battle wounds (5).
The war was clearly limited to Europe but the US had
declared war on countries from which many people had
emigrated to the US. The idea that enemy sympathizers in
the US could sabotage critical infrastructure was a novel
one that caused some amount of concern for the security of
water supplies at home.
The other notable impact on water supplies in this period
“Hardened” pump station at St.
was in the lack of resources at home. Coal was in short
Jacques
supply to the point
that the steam
stations struggled
to maintain
operation.
Gasoline and
diesel fuel were in
similar short
supply. Metal for
pipes was scarce so
distribution system
1919 - 26th Engineers mobile water treatment
Mobile chemical feed
expansion was
truck
limited and new
pipe materials like reinforced concrete were looked at more seriously.
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1919 Boston Police Strike
Shortly after World War I,
the increase in union
activity led to strikes in
many industries. The most
disruptive was a 1919 strike
by Boston policemen which
led to rioting in the
downtown neighborhoods.
As was the case during the
World Wars, key water
facilities required full time
guards.
World War II
The concerns during WWII
MA National Guard protecting Chestnut Hill Reservoir in
were similar to those of
Brighton MA during 1919 Police Strike
World War I but now
improved airplane technology meant that bombs could conceivably be delivered over the US
mainland. This caused much consternation in the water supply world since it was apparent from
the extensive bombing in Europe that water utilities were suffering great damage. Contingency
plans were called for to contain pipe ruptures due to bombing and to build redundant facilities for
critical aqueducts or pump stations. One common technique was to add hydrants to suction and
discharge piping of pump stations to allow a fire engine pump to serve as a backup.
Many more chemical and
biological agents were now
available as weapons. In fact,
active testing and/or use of such
had occurred in some theaters of
the war. Experts now began to be
concerned over the use of such
materials away from the
battlefield, with US water
supplies being considered a likely
target to demoralize the US
public. Briefings were provided
to water suppliers regarding these
WW II Bomb crater in England, water leaking from broken
agents and their likely effects in
main
drinking water. Response
measures focused on the use of higher chlorine doses and delivery of extra chlorine at additional
points in the distribution system.
The idea of saboteurs now included both enemy sympathizers (a.k.a. Fifth Columnists) and also
the possibility of spies being landed on our shores by submarines. Arrests of such infiltrators
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were apparently made by the FBI in separate incidents on Long Island NY and Jacksonville FL,
according to one NEWWA paper. The reaction in the water supply world, as one of the critical
infrastructures, was to fortify facilities and guard them with armed troops in some cases. This is
not unlike the reaction to today’s threat of terrorism.
Shortages in many
materials essential to the
war effort such as iron,
steel and rubber affected
the water supply industry.
Vendors of many new
materials like asbestos
cement pipe and
reinforced concrete pipes
and tanks took the sales
approach that it was
patriotic to use less metal
by using their product.
With the draft taking
many New England men,
labor for system
improvements or even
just maintenance was in
short supply as well.
Ads run by a prestressed
concrete pipe manufacturer
emphasizing the metal saved by
using their product
The Cold War
The end of World War II, brought about by the use of the atom bomb, began the Cold War era.
During this period, other nations developed not just nuclear capabilities, but also the ability to
deliver many nuclear missiles or bombs to target cities in the US. This raised anxiety among
water suppliers in the same way that the public began to fear the bomb. NEWWA Journal
articles quoted briefings of the probable deaths within a certain radius of cities like Boston and
counseled that water suppliers needed to come up with response plans for post nuclear attack
scenarios.
The threat of radiation from fallout turned to reality in a limited way as a result of the open air Hbomb testing done in the early days of nuclear escalation. With Russia, the US and others
conducting bomb testing, fallout became a worldwide problem which, for a time, produced
measurable radioactivity in surface waters.
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1962 chart of beta radiation measures in airborne particulates after worldwide H bomb test
detonations
The 9/11/01 World Trade Center Attack and Terrorism
The events of 9/11/01 and the days that followed reinvigorated concerns over attacks on water
supplies by terrorists. With large stockpiles of chemical and biological agents in the hands of
foreign governments around the world, the idea that a terrorist group could procure such
materials was a major concern. The 9/11/01 attacks also demonstrated a clear intent to cause
maximum casualties and a level of planning and resources that made the future threats very
credible. Up to this time, security at most water utilities had been focused on vandalism and
theft, but now the idea of defending many vulnerable locations in a far-flung water system
against a motivated, well financed, technically astute enemy was an entirely new situation. Other
recent incidents like the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing and terrorist bomb attacks
worldwide also raised concerns that explosive attacks could occur on any critical infrastructure
and that water supply should protect itself from such threats as well.
DHS Orange level - Guarding key water supply
facilities
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Post 9/11 Welding hatch covers
New England Water Supplies – A Brief History
M. Kempe
The threat of water supply poisoning is not a new one, but there are relatively few contamination
incidents in the past. The possibility of an unknown contaminant being injected at any point and
any time in the distribution system is a difficult problem to monitor and defend against, leading
to much research and the development of new distribution system water quality monitoring
strategies aimed especially for this issue.
After 9/11/01, the 2002 Bioterrorism Act required all water suppliers serving 3,300 people or
more, to conduct vulnerability assessments and update emergency plans accordingly. Much
effort has since gone into the protection of New England water systems and the development of
response measures against the terrorist threat.
The intentional contamination aspects of terrorism will likely have far reaching effects. Already
much research funding has been allocated by the federal government. Some version of minimum
water security standards and broader contamination monitoring may eventually become
regulated at the state or federal level as a preventative measure.
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